NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Phillips 66 rose Friday after billionaire Warren Buffett said a Berkshire Hathaway investment manager purchased shares in the oil refining company.
During an interview on Bloomberg television, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said one of his company's new investment managers purchased the stock of Phillips 66, which was spun off by ConocoPhillips in May.
Buffett didn't disclose any details of the investment, but he has said that investments made by managers Todd Combs or Ted Weschler tend to be smaller than those he makes. So the Phillips 66 investment likely was worth somewhere between $200 million dollars and $1 billion.
Phillips 66, based in Houston, owns refining, midstream and chemicals businesses.
Berkshire initially purchased 17.5 million shares of ConocoPhillips in 2007 and increased the stake to 84.9 million shares in 2008 when oil prices skyrocketed.
In his 2009 annual letter to shareholders, Buffett said he didn't anticipate that oil prices would fall as sharply as they did late in 2008. His decision to raise the stake in ConocoPhillips cost Berkshire shareholders several billion dollars.
Since then Berkshire has written down the value of its ConocoPhillips holdings and cut its stake in the company to 29.1 million shares as of the end of March.
Berkshire's investments are closely watched by market investors because of Buffett's generally successful record for picking stocks.
Buffett makes most of the investment decisions, but Combs and Weschler run portfolios that are worth about $4 billion apiece. Combs joined Berkshire last year and Weschler came on board early this year.
In afternoon trading, shares of Phillips 66 rose $1.49, or 4.5 percent, to $34.50. ConocoPhillips gained 81 cents to $54.79.
___
AP Business Writer Josh Funk in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this story.
